The self-proclaimed Arius Royal Guard conversed to each other, their conversation brimming with the stories of the past and how they seem to look at it with such mixed emotions.

"How's it like living in D.U?"

"I had to work with Mr. Daiki at the ramen stall to get by. He's a great guy, even though he looks gruff. I kinda like it there."

"What made you come back?"

"Arius... Well, I know we struggle a lot but it's home for us, right?"

One of them kicked away a piece of rubble at the side. A hint of frustration painted her face, but it was also one that was perhaps a mix of something unreadable. Conflict, perhaps.

"You're really idealistic."

"Hey, at least now we have a roof over our head and all we have to do is work for it instead of living off of scraps. That's for sure."

"Yeah. Millennium's kinda nice for us too. The library, the roads, they're fixing it up really nicely."

"Course, it's also because they're nabbing our old tech and refining it. Y'know, like the fact that they've taken the blueprints for our masks and start reverse engineering it. But hey, we got roads out of it. Although, I'm not entirely sure why they gave Arius Satellite School a self-repair sentry cannon."

"Wait, can't we make popcorn out of that?'

"Oh wait, we probably can!"

"And isn't today the horticultural therapy thing with Shanhaijing? We can grow corn!"

"Whoa whoa whoa. That's too ambitious."

"But it is profitable..."

"Your time in that ramen stall really made you economically minded, didn't it?"

Kize, through it all, kept silent. They were casually sharing their lives, their struggles and their thoughts around him. It was an odd sensation, simply because this wasn't exactly something he'd like to listen to.

Their sharing was something else. A faint whirr buzzed through the air, but they collectively had the same thought. Perhaps it was Millennium's drones heading off to clean more rubble elsewhere.

"Sensei."

Kize didn't answer.

"Who were you before this?"

"............"

"Sensei? I'm sure you're someone before all this, can you tell us?" One of the students tugged at his sleeve, and a semblance of reaction was shown on his face, as he jerked his hand away.

"Don't. Touch. Me."

Cold, utterly devoid of life. They expected him to sound like that, considering how they have been told of Kize. And yet... This was like seeing someone else entirely. Not even a ghost.

But a shut out.

"... I'm sorry."

The rest of the travel was of silence and of distance, with the students quickly aiming their guns around carefully. Kize however, gripped onto his wrist, hunched over so that the students didn't look at him again. His breathing was silent, yet was constantly short and shallow. His wrist ached where he'd gripped it. A phantom pain... Or the ghost of someone's hand, long withdrawn.

They perhaps should have known better, as the whirring of the drone was faint, yet still there, no matter how many steps they took.

The Kaiser drone continued observing them.

Observing him.

Its lens zoomed, capturing the exact moment Kize's fingers dug into his wrist. The drone's lens focused, not on the armed students, but on the one man who held no weapon, yet seemed the most dangerous of all.

The drone lingered for a breath longer, then shot skyward, its shadow slicing across Kize's face like a blade. By the time the Arius Royal Guard looked up, it was already gone.

—

His arrival was met with no fanfare, as students began their daily ritual of maintenance. The careful consideration of flowerbeds, the fountain, and students constantly weaving through the school and the grounds. The gunshots that echoed through the training grounds, the sound of drilling, chatter, all culminating in a school that was proudly rebuilding itself, its foundations set to its way of true self-governance. As Kize moved through, a few eyes looked at him, but gave a nod before continuing their activity.

"Hey, what do you suggest I write to the Engineering Department?"

"You're not using Momotalk for that?"

"I don't really have a phone yet. That's going to take a while for me, since... Y'know. Arius with how it was."

"Oh. Right."

Kize wished he didn't hear this conversation.

"Sensei." Saori's voice cut through the din. Not the title he'd given them, but the one they'd chosen. Kize looked back up, spotting Saori standing with her arms crossed, her index tapping against her bicep as if counting a sort of timer in her head.

"You're here."

"Thought I had a choice?"

A scoff left Saori's lips at his blunt response.

"Shanhaijing's Plum Blossom Garden will be here in 3 minutes. So... Get comfortable, or something."

Kize didn't entertain her statement with an answer, while his 'Royal Guard' dispersed away, busying themselves in marvelling the school's resident painters currently providing a vivid reimagining of the school's 'purity'. The mural wasn't just violent; it was a deliberate mess. Smears of gold bled into gunmetal gray, as if the painters had dueled with brushes instead of bullets. Through it all, a single wilted rose peeked through. Their old identity, carried over to their new.

Kize exhaled. Not even Beatrice, wherever she was, could scrub this riot of life away.

His hands quietly slipped into his pocket as he observed the gate. The voices, cheers, jeers, gunshots, all became white noise as he silently sat onto a lone bench. His eyes flickered for a moment, his eyelids heavy.

He hadn't gotten much sleep last night. That woman's tease was a bit much for his psyche. A reminder of a past he didn't want bubbling up. And yet, just as he allowed himself a hint of reprieve--

"Shanhaijing spotted! One minute, tops!"

An announcement from the rooftop, loud enough for the students to hear. Immediately, everything stopped. Everything went still. And in the first few seconds, nothing happened.

Everything after that fell like clockwork, with the Arius students lining up stiffly at the plains within the school itself. There was no uniform line to indicate whose in which class. There was no standardization. There was no need for it.

Then, the gates creaked open, and chaos of a different kind spilled in.

First came the lanterns. Dozens of them, bobbing like fireflies on strings carried by children barely taller than the saplings they clutched. Each plant was swaddled in plum-patterned cloth, roots carefully tucked into repurposed ration tins.

Then came the smell. Sweet plum blossoms and earthy tea leaves, drowning out Arius' gunpowder stench. A toddler sneezed explosively into a paint can; the resulting pink plume made an Arius painter groan.

Finally, the sound. Not drills or gunfire, but the voice of a child, yet commandeered the children quite well, ringing clear as a bell:

"Line up by planting teams! Team Worm goes behind Team Butterfly, or the caterpillars will get confused!"

The Arius students stared. Someone muttered, "What the hell is a planting team?"

And then...

Shun.

She stood at the rear, a single unlit lantern in hand. Her eyes locked onto Kize's slouched form, her smile sharp as a pruning shear.

"Sensei."

He didn't look up. He didn't even feel like he should.

"Shun."

"Alright children! Everyone in lines of five, we'll be readying up--" A noise that vaguely sounded like a panic, followed by a thud, a dust cloud of dirt forming. There was silence, as if trying to rein themselves from anything of relative stupidity.

And then the voice called out again.

--the saplings and the gardens for the next few days! Totally meant to do that."

A cheerful noise left out of the children. A rare sound, for Arius' standards. Of course, naturally, some stared.

Lucky them. Their childhood wasn't robbed.

Kize on the other hand, gripped the inside of his pocket, trying to keep himself both awake and conscious. The sound of those innocent children felt... Foreign. As if it was something he could almost understand but can't comprehend it.

As if it psychologically pained him to hear it.

A giggle came up.

"Kokona-chan, you have to be more careful with your tools."

"Stop calling me that, Shun-nee! I thought I told you already!"

A heartfelt chuckle left her lips, as Kokona pouted.

"Fine then! Let's go, everyone! Arius, you too. Come on!"

The Arius students glanced at each other. Are they certain to take instructions from an 11 year old? She didn't seem as competent compared to Sensei, but it also seems like Sensei is preoccupied with Shun. Inevitably, someone stepped forward.

"What do you need us do?"

"Take some of the saplings. We'll definitely need to find an appropriate spot to plant it, sunlight and all."

"We could plant it near the dormitory," Atsuko voiced out. "It can definitely give the students a reason to visit and appreciate the little things."

Their discussion of positions became irrelevant to Kize, as he noticed the unlit lantern placed beside him.

"Sensei, I know you're only here to observe, but that doesn't mean you can't help."

"This is between Shanhaijing and Arius. I'm just making sure that it stays that way."

"Sensei. Even flowers need time to bloom."

".... What?" Kize was swiftly taken off guard, as he craned his head up to look directly in the eyes of the instructor of Shanhaijing's Plum Blossom Garden. All she gave was a smile, before she spoke again.

"The lantern is for you. When you're ready." She then walked off, straight towards the negotiations between Kokona and Atsuko, who seem to come to an agreement of sorts with the location.

The children cheered again.

——

It was rare to see Arius being so disarming around children. At the same time, they always grew up as soldiers rather than children.

So to find out that their collaborators consisted of sibling instructors, one of which is probably old, the other being less than a teenager's age, their other collaborators were actual children, kindergarteners who retained and shown their innocence and honesty before their very eyes.

Saori's wariness wore off when one of the children, caked in dirt and soil, tugged at her pristinely white coat and pointed towards her mask, asking what it does. When she explained that it covers her face, the child questioned why she had to 'hide her pretty face'. She had no answer, but with how she looked away, the child hit a mark. After this, Saori was seen without it.

Hiyori tried to plant a sapling, only for Kokona to quickly point out that she was putting the sapling in too deep a soil. After some profuse apologies and averting headaches, Hiyori eventually got the hang of it and attempted to plant the other saplings as best as she could.

Atsuko would have wanted to help, but the children had dragged her off due to their interest in the bullet casings strewn about at the shooting range. Their fascination provided Atsuko with a small idea, before she picked up several casings of various ammo cartridges and hung them together with pieces of string and metal strewn about. The end result was a wind chime that let out hollow noises at every breeze of the wind. An interest of innovation for them.

Misaki was barely seen. Or rather, she didn't seem to want to make an appearance at all. It wasn't until some of the Arius students cautiously brought some of the kindergarteners around to tour the school that they spotted Misaki in the student council room. One thing led to another, and now Misaki was the one very reluctantly leading them around, her deadpan and blunt execution of description of the locations rated to be two stars by them. Misaki shouldn't have cared about that rating.

Arius, on the other hand, was filled the brim with noises, this time. The painters, with their thoughtful murals, had a bit of a fit when the children painted flowers across the pillars below the murals. But seeing them covered in paint, grinning so happily at their work of art, showed something. The saplings being planted was a mixed ordering from Kokona and Shun, with Kokona giving a hands on demonstration and Shun focusing entirely in guiding the Arius students on how to perfect their posture and their grip.

A rare moment of joy for almost everyone to the point that, when it was evening, Arius wondered if they planned to stay for the week.

They did.

Spare classrooms were abundant in Arius Satellite School, so repurposing them to become temporary sleeping holds and nap times for the children was the best move they had.

At the end of the day, Arius Satellite School wasn't lit up by their static white fluorescent lights. As the night began to rise, lanterns were lit. Majority of which were self made by Arius purely for their desire to try and emulate Shun's own.

She appreciated every single attempt.

—

The last of the day's clamor had faded. The children's laughter, Arius' drills, the clatter of trowels, all swallowed by the encroaching night. Kize exhaled, the cold metal of the rooftop railing biting into his palms as he leaned against it. Below, the lanterns flickered like distant stars, their glow too weak to reach him.

He sank to the ground, back against the ventilation unit, and pulled the Shittim Chest onto his lap. The tablet hummed to life, its screen casting a pale blue pallor over his exhausted features.

Faint, overlapping voices murmured from the speakers; Arona and Plana, mid-argument.

"Arona-senpai, you cannot allocate 87% of system resources to 'how to prank Sensei when he least expects it.'"

"B-But Planaaa! It'd be fun!"

"Irrelevant. Prioritizing district surveillance."

"Mean!"

Kize ignored their bickering, swiping through mission reports. Then... A file name flashed at the edge of the screen.

PH REN AP AT ES

His thumb hovered. He blinked only once, as if thinking that such a name was so odd. As if there was some level of significance behind such a name that it was a dedicated file. And as far as he was concerned, this was most certainly not in any relation to a big name.

What was even more odd was that the AIs weren't talking anymore. No. They fell silent, noticing where and what he was looking at.

His thumb fell onto the screen.

ERROR: ACCESS RESTRICTED
(Biometric verification required: PRIMARY USER [SENSEI] only.)

Arona's face popped up, wide-eyed. "Ah! S-Sensei! That's, ummm, classified! Super-duper classified!"

Plana's cooler tone cut in. "Inquiry denied. Directive from GSC."

Kize didn't raise his voice. "Who is Phrenapates?"

Arona's pixelated cheeks puffed. "N-Nobody! Just a-a glitch! A weird, sad glitch!"

Plana said nothing.

Then, a single line of text scrolled across the screen:

"He's a Sensei from another timeline."

Kize's breath stilled. A statement that shouldn't have made any sense. It shouldn't have, considering how everything was, as far as he was concerned. And yet... Rin's word echoed in his head.

"We have prepared countermeasures in case of otherworldly destructors come by."

Was... This what she meant?

Fragmented data spilled forth:

A ruined Kivotos, skies choked with smoke.

Sensei... No, Phrenapates, bloodied, broken, dragging themselves through rubble.

A silver-grey haired girl, her halo cracked, clutching their sleeve.

An AI that vaguely resembled Plana, her voice glitching: "P-Please. Run."

And then, the final image:

Sensei, offering a hand to their doomed counterpart. Kize could see the detail on him. A dirty, wrinkled, white long-sleeved polo, black tie, gray pants and black shoes. His black hair was messy, as if he emerged from a war zone.

A whisper: "I'll protect her. Go rest."

Phrenapates dissolving into light, just before the rubble crushed Sensei in their place.

The tablet dimmed. The rooftop felt colder.

Arona sniffled. "Sensei... Sensei got really hurt saving everyone. Even that version of them."

Plana's response was softer now. "They would do it again. Without hesitation."

Kize stared at his gloved hands.

He understood now. Not the heroism. the recklessness. That unconditional love for students wasn't just strength; it was a death wish wrapped in a smile.

And he?

He was no Sensei.

"Why show me this?" he finally asked.

Plana answered first. "You asked."

Arona added, quieter: "And... maybe you needed to."

Kize snapped the Shittim Chest shut.

Below, a child's laughter echoed. Kokona, chasing fireflies. The saplings thrived. The sentry cannon stood watch near the gate.

And Kize?

He stayed on the roof. Not hiding. Not yet ready to leap.